Method and system for provisioning and maintaining a circuit in a data network

ABSTRACT

A method and system are provided for provisioning a circuit in a data network without manual intervention. A network management module receives an order for provisioning the circuit and then, based on the order, transmits a request to a legacy logical element module to configure a logical circuit in one or more network devices in the network. The network device may be a switch. The circuit may be a frame relay circuit or an ATM circuit. A method and system are also provided for maintaining a network circuit in a data network. The network circuit includes both a logical circuit and a physical circuit. A legacy physical element module sends a request for logical circuit data to a legacy logical element module through a network management module in communication with the legacy physical element module and the legacy physical element module. Based on the request, the legacy logical element module retrieves the logical circuit data from one or more network devices in the network and transmits the data to the legacy physical element module through the network management module. Upon receiving the logical circuit data, the legacy physical element module troubleshoots the physical circuit to maintain the network circuit.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present invention relates to provisioning and maintaining acircuit in a data network without manual intervention.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Data networks contain various network devices, such as switches,for sending and receiving data between two locations. For example, aframe relay network contains interconnected network devices that allowdata packets to be channeled over a circuit through the network from ahost to a remote device. For a given network circuit, the data from ahost location is delivered to the network through a physical circuitsuch as a T1 line that links to a switch of the network. The remotedevice that communicates with the host through the network also has aphysical circuit to a switch of the network. The communication pathbetween the switches associated with the host and the remote device thatpasses through the network is a logical circuit. In a frame relaynetwork, end devices do not select different routes for data packetssent between the host and the remote location, but always send the datapackets through the same path. A host may have many logical circuits,such as permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) or switched virtual circuits(SVCs), linked to many remote locations. For example, a PVC in a framerelay network sends and receives data packets through the same pathleading to the switch of the remote device's physical connection

[0003] The switches in data network are generally in communication withone or more legacy logical and physical element modules. For example, ina frame relay network, a logical element module communicates with aswitch to instruct the switch to function as a logical port in thenetwork. The switches of the network send data packets to particulardestinations and thereby create logical circuits in response to theinformation provided by the logical element module. Because the legacylogical element module has access to the switches, it can also log theoperating parameters of each switch. The legacy logical and physicalelement modules are utilized by technicians to employ methods forprovisioning and maintaining network circuits in the network. Thesecurrent methods, however, suffer from several drawbacks.

[0004] First, to provision a network circuit for a service, it iscurrently necessary for a technician to establish the physical circuitby making a physical connection (i.e., wiring the circuit) between ahost device and the switch and then to access a terminal in the logicalelement module to manually enter data for establishing the logicalcircuit in the switch. However, these current methods for provisioningnetwork circuits require the utilization of manpower resources (i.e.,technicians are required at the switch and at the legacy logical elementmodule) which could be deployed elsewhere as well as the time requiredfor the technicians to manually enter the provisioning data.

[0005] Second, to maintain a network circuit, currently two processesgenerally occur after a problem is reported. First, a technicianaccesses the legacy logical element module to troubleshoot the logicalcircuit by accessing and analyzing logical circuit data from one or moreswitches to determine if the logical circuit is down. If the logicalcircuit is operating properly, the technician then accesses the legacyphysical element module to troubleshoot the physical circuit, which inmost instances requires taking the network circuit out of service toperform testing. However, currently there is no access by the legacyphysical element module to the logical data provided by the legacylogical element module for use in troubleshooting physical circuits. Asa result of not having access to the logical data, there may beinstances where the network circuit is unnecessarily taken out ofservice

[0006] Therefore, there is a need for an interface to provision networkcircuits in a data network without manual intervention. There is afurther need for access to logical circuit data to improve themaintenance of network circuits in a data network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] Embodiments of the present invention provide for a method andsystem for provisioning a network circuit in a data network withoutmanual intervention. A network management module receives an order forprovisioning the circuit and then, based on the order, transmits arequest to a legacy logical element module to configure a logicalcircuit in one or more network devices in the network. The networkdevice may be a switch. The circuit may be a frame relay circuit, an ATMcircuit, or other logical circuit.

[0008] In another embodiment of the invention, a method and system areprovided for maintaining a network circuit in a data network. Thenetwork circuit includes both a logical circuit and a physical circuit.A legacy physical element module sends a request for logical circuitdata to a legacy logical element module through a network managementmodule in communication with the legacy physical element module. Basedon the request, the legacy logical element module retrieves the logicalcircuit data from one or more network devices in the network andtransmits the data to the legacy physical element module through thenetwork management module. Upon receiving the logical circuit data, thelegacy physical element module troubleshoots the physical circuit tomaintain the network circuit.

[0009] The various aspects of the present invention may be more clearlyunderstood and appreciated from a review of the following detaileddescription of the disclosed embodiments and by reference to thedrawings and claims.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010]FIG. 1 shows a networked environment including a data network anda management system in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of thepresent invention.

[0011]FIG. 2 shows an illustrative routine for provisioning a networkcircuit in the networked environment shown in FIG. 1.

[0012]FIG. 3 shows an illustrative routine for performing maintenance ona network circuit in the networked environment shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0013] Embodiments of the present invention are generally employed in anetworked environment 100 as shown in FIG. 1. The networked environment100, includes a data network 150, which contains one or moreinterconnected network elements, such as switches 106, 107, and 108, fortransmitting data. The data network 150 may be a frame relay network. Inone embodiment, the switches 106, 107, and 108 may be data packetswitches. It will be appreciated that the data network may also containother interconnected network devices and elements (not shown) such asdigital access and cross connect switches (DACs), channel service units(CSUs), and data service units (DSUs).

[0014] The data network 150 channels data using a network circuit 115between a host device 112 and a remote device 114. The network circuit115 includes a physical circuit and a logical circuit. As used in theforegoing description and the appended claims, a physical circuit isdefined as the physical path that connects the end point of a networkcircuit to a network device. For example, in the networked environment100 of FIG. 1, the physical circuit of the network circuit 115 includesthe physical connection 121 between the router 109 and the switch 106 aswell as the physical connection 103 between the router 110 and theremote device 114. Routers 109 and 110 carry the physical signal fromthe end devices 112 and 114 over the connections 101 and 103 to thenetwork 150. The routers 109 and 110 are connected to host devices 112and 114 by links 121 and 123 respectively. The routers 109 and 110 maybe local area network (LAN) routers, LAN bridges, hosts, front endprocessors, Frame Relay Access Devices (FRADs), or any other device witha frame relay or network interface. It should be appreciated that thehost devices may be configured to serve as routers (thus eliminating theneed for the routers 109 and 110). It should also be appreciated that asingle router may be linked to multiple host devices. The physicalconnections 101 and 103 for the physical circuit may be any physicalcommunications medium such as a 56 Kbps line or T1 line carried over afour-wire shielded cable or over a fiber optic cable.

[0015] As used in the foregoing description and the appended claims, alogical circuit is defined as a portion of the network circuit whereindata is sent over a communication data path between the first and lastnetwork devices in the data network. For example, in the networkedenvironment 100 of FIG. 1, the logical circuit of the network circuit115 may include the communication path 105 between the switches 106,107, and 108 in the data network 150. In one embodiment, the logicalpath 105 may be a trunk for physically interconnecting the switches 106,107, and 108. It should be understood that the actual path taken by datathrough the data network 150 is not fixed and may vary from time totime, such as when automatic rerouting takes place. For example, thelogical circuit of the network circuit 115 may include the communicationpath 104 between the switches 106 and 108. It should be understood thatno matter what path the data takes the beginning and end of the logicalcircuit (i.e., the switches 106 and 108) will not change. It will beappreciated that the data network 150 may contain additional switches orother interconnected network elements creating multiple paths betweenthe switches 106, 107, and 108 defining the logical circuit in the datanetwork. In the data network 150, the logical circuit may be either apermanent virtual circuit (PVC) remaining available to the network atall times or a temporary or switched virtual circuit (SVC) available tothe network only as long as data is being transmitted.

[0016] In the networked environment 100, the network circuit 115 isestablished between the router 109 and the router 110 by channeling datapackets or frames through the data network 150. In frame relay networks,each data frame sent from the host device 112 and the remote device 114includes a header containing information, called a data link connectionidentifier (DLCI) which specifies the frame's destination, along withdata. The header also includes specific bits for indicating theexistence of congestion in the network and for discarding frames. In oneembodiment, the logical circuit in the networked environment 100 may beprovisioned with parameters for handling network congestion. Theseparameters may include a Committed Information Rate (CIR) and aCommitted Burst Size (Bc). As is known to those skilled in the art, theCIR represents the average capacity of the logical circuit and the Bcrepresents the maximum amount of data that may be transmitted. Thelogical circuit may be provisioned such that when the CIR or the Bc isexceeded, the frame will be discarded by the receiving switch in thedata network. It will be appreciated that the parameters for the logicalcircuit are not limited to the CIR and the Be and that other parametersmay be provisioned which are known to those skilled in the art. Itshould be understood that the embodiments of the present invention arenot limited to frame relay networks but may also be implemented in othertypes of data networks such as asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) andnative-mode local area networks.

[0017] The networked environment 100 may also include a signalingmechanism for determining the status of the logical circuit in the datanetwork 150. In a frame relay network, the signaling mechanism may be inaccord with a Local Management Interface (LMI) specification whichprovides for the sending and receiving of “status inquiries” between thenetwork and an access device. The LMI specification includes obtainingstatus information through the use of special management frames with aunique DLCI address which may be passed between the network and theaccess device. These frames monitor the status of the connection andprovide information regarding the health of the network. For example inthe data network 150, the router 109 receives status information fromthe switch 106 in response to a status request sent in a specialmanagement frame. The LMI status information may include whether or notthe logical circuit is congested or whether or not the network circuitis down. It should be understood that the parameters and the signalingmechanism discussed above are optional and that other parameters andmechanisms may also be utilized to obtain connection status informationfor a network circuit.

[0018] The networked environment 100 includes a service order system 160for receiving service orders for provisioning network circuits. Theservice order includes information defining the transmissioncharacteristics (i.e., the logical circuit) of the network circuit. Theservice order also contains the access speed, CIR, burst rates, andexcess burst rates. The service order system 160 communicates theservice order information to a network database 170 over managementtrunk 171. The network database 170 assigns and stores the parametersfor the physical circuit for the network circuit such as a port numberon the switch 106 for transmitting data over the physical connections101 and 103 to the host device 112.

[0019] The network database 170 may also be in communication with anoperations support system (not shown) for assigning physical equipmentto the network circuit and for maintaining an inventory of the physicalassignments for the network circuit. An illustrative operations supportsystem is “TIRKS”® (Trunks Integrated Records Keeping System) marketedby TELECORDIA™ TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. of Morristown, N.J. The networkdatabase 170 may also be in communication with a Work ForceAdministration and Control system (WFA/C) (not shown) which is used toassign resources (i.e., technicians) to work on installing the physicalcircuit.

[0020] The networked environment 100 also includes a legacy logicalelement module 153 in communication with the switches 106, 108 and hostdevice 112 and remote devices 114 through management trunks 185. Thelegacy logical element module 153 runs a network management applicationprogram to monitor the operation and retrieve data regarding theoperation of the logical circuit established between switch 106 andswitch 108 for the network circuit 115. The legacy logical elementmodule may consist of terminals (not shown) that display a map-basedgraphical user interface (GUI) of the logical connections in the datanetwork. An illustrative legacy logical element module is the NAVISCORE™system marketed by LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. of Murray Hill, N.J.

[0021] The networked environment 100 further includes a legacy physicalelement module 155. The legacy physical element module 155 runs anetwork management application program to monitor the operation andretrieve data regarding the operation of the physical circuit of thenetwork circuit 115. The legacy physical element module is also incommunication with the network database 170 for accessing informationregarding physical circuits such as the line speed of the physicalcircuit. Similar to the legacy logical element module 153, the physicallogical element module 155 may also consist of terminals (not shown)that display a map-based graphical user interface (GUI) of the physicalconnections in the data network. An illustrative physical element moduleis the Integrated Testing and Analysis System (INTAS), marketed byTELECORDIA™ TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. of Morristown, N.J., which providesflow-through testing and analysis of telephony services.

[0022] The legacy physical element module 155 troubleshoots the physicalconnections 101 and 103 for the physical circuit by communicating withtest module 180 which interfaces with the physical connections via testaccess points 156 and 157. The test module 180 obtains the status of thephysical circuit by transmitting “clean” test signals to test accesspoints 156 and 157 which “loopback” the signals for detection by thetest module 180. It should be understood that there may multiple testaccess points on each of the physical connections 101 and 103 for thephysical circuit.

[0023] The networked environment further includes a network managementmodule 175 in communication with the service order system 160, thenetwork database 170, the legacy logical element module 153, and thelegacy physical element module 155 through communications channels 172.The communications channels 172 may be on a local area network (LAN).The network management module 175 may include a terminal (not shown),which may be a general-purpose computer system with a display screen.The network management module 175 serves as an interface forimplementing logical operations to provision and maintain networkcircuits in the networked environment 100. The logical operations may beimplemented as machine instructions stored locally or as instructionsretrieved from the legacy element modules 153 and 155. The networkmanagement module 175 may communicate with the legacy element managementmodule 153 and the legacy physical element management module 155 using aCommon Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). As is known to thoseskilled in the art, CORBA is an open, vendor-independent architectureand infrastructure which allows different computer applications to worktogether over one or more networks using a basic set of commands andresponses. An illustrative routine illustrating the logical operationsperformed by the network management module 175 to provision and maintainnetwork circuits is described below with reference to FIGS. 2-3.

[0024]FIG. 2 shows an illustrative routine for provisioning a networkcircuit in the networked environment 100. Referring now to FIG. 2, theroutine 200 begins at block 205 wherein the network management module175 receives a service order from the service order system 160 forprovisioning a network circuit for a customer, such as network circuit115. As described above, the service order includes information definingthe transmission characteristics of the logical circuit (i.e., accessspeed, CIR, burst rates, excess burst rates, and DCLI), as well as thephysical information needed by downstream systems (i.e., TIRKS and WFA)to assign physical equipment for installing the physical circuit. Atblock 210, the service order system 160 communicates the physicalcircuit information to the network database 170 which assigns theparameters for the physical circuit such as the port number on theswitch 106 for transmitting data over the physical connections 101 and103 to the host device 112.

[0025] The routine 200 continues to block 215 wherein the networkmanagement system 175 receives the assignments for the physical circuitfrom the network database 170. The network management module 175 thencommunicates the physical circuit information to a technician who makesthe physical connections to establish the physical circuit (i.e.,provisions) based on the assignments received from the network database170.

[0026] At block 220, the network management module 175 communicates thelogical information from the service order request to the legacy logicalelement module 153 with instructions to provision the logical circuit.The legacy logical element module 153 provisions the logical circuit bylocating the appropriate network devices, and programming ports on theswitches in the data network 150 to create the logical circuit. Forexample, in the networked environment 100, the legacy logical elementmodule 153 would access ports in network device 106, 107, 108 andprogram the ports to deliver data from the host 112 to the remote device114 over connection path 105. Thus, the logical circuit for the networkcircuit 115 is provisioned by the network management module 175 withoutmanual intervention.

[0027]FIG. 3 shows an illustrative routine method 300 for performingmaintenance on the network circuit 115 in the networked environment 100.The routine 300 begins at block 305 wherein, in response to a reportedproblem, the legacy physical element module 155 obtains the physicalcircuit information (e.g., port information) from the network database170 and sends a request to network management module 175 to obtain thelogical circuit information for the network circuit 115.

[0028] The routine 300 continues to block 310, upon receiving therequest from the legacy physical management module 155, the networkmanagement module 175 sends a request to the legacy logical elementmodule 153 to obtain logical circuit data, such as the LMI status, forthe logical circuit. At block 315, the legacy logical element module 153retrieves the logical circuit data from a switch, such as switch 106, inthe data network 150. The retrieved data may include the aforementionedLMI information as well as the CIR, the Bc, and the DLCI for the logicalcircuit. The legacy logical element module 153 then communicates thelogical circuit data to the network management module 175.

[0029] At block 320, the network management module 175 examines thelogical circuit data to determine whether or not the logical circuit hasfailed (i.e., the logical circuit is not transmitting data) so that thelegacy physical element module 155 can safely test the network circuit115 by taking it out of service without losing data. For example, if theLMI information indicates that the logical circuit is congested (i.e.,the current access speed exceeds the CIR or the Bc thereby causingframes to be dropped in the data network 150) or if the LMI informationindicates that the network circuit 115 is “down” (indicated by theabsence of a “keep alive” signal between a router and a switch in thedata network), then the network management module 175 will communicatethe logical circuit data to the legacy physical element module 155 andinstruct the legacy physical element module 155 to test the physicalcircuit at block 325. The legacy physical element module 155 tests thephysical circuit by communicating a request to the test module 180 toaccess a loop-able test point 156 or 157 on the physical connections 101or 103. The tests may consist of determining whether the test module 180can detect a clean signal that it transmits out to the loop-able testpoint. It will be appreciated that more detailed and advanced testingmay also be performed by technicians using tools within the legacyphysical element module 155 as well as other tools.

[0030] Conversely, if at block 320, the network management module 175determines that the legacy physical element module 155 can not safelytest the network circuit 155 (e.g., the logical circuit is not congestedand the network circuit 115 is “up,” then the network management module175 communicates again with the legacy logical element module todetermine if another logical circuit in the data network 150 has failedat block 310. As discussed briefly above, the communications between thelegacy physical element module 155, the network management module 175,and the legacy logical element module 153 may be implemented usingscript files containing sets of commands and responses through a CORBAinterface.

[0031] The network management module 175 enables the legacy physicalelement module 155 to obtain logical circuit data from the legacylogical element module 153. As a result, technicians at the legacyphysical element module 155 are able to use the logical circuit data totroubleshoot network circuits without unnecessarily taking them out ofservice. Although the present invention has been described in connectionwith various exemplary embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the artwill understand that many modifications can be made thereto within thescope of the claims that follow. Accordingly, it is not intended thatthe scope of the invention in any way be limited by the abovedescription, but instead be determined entirely by reference to theclaims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for provisioning a network circuit in adata network, comprising: providing an interface to a legacy logicalelement module; receiving a request to provision the network circuit;transmitting the request over the interface to the legacy logicalelement module; and in response to the request, configuring a logicalcircuit, wherein the logical circuit is configured without manualintervention.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the logicalcircuit comprises sending the data describing a logical data path to atleast one network device in communication with the legacy logicalelement module to provision the network circuit.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein the network circuit is provisioned for frame relay service.4. The method of claim 1, wherein the network circuit is provisioned forasynchronous transfer mode (ATM) service.
 5. A system for provisioning anetwork circuit in a data network comprising: at least one networkdevice for establishing the network circuit; a network management modulefor sending a request to provision the network circuit; and a legacylogical element module for receiving the request from the networkmanagement module, wherein the legacy logical element module configuresa logical circuit based on the request without manual intervention. 6.The system of claim 5, wherein the network device is a switch.
 7. Thesystem of claim 5, wherein the network circuit is a frame relay circuit.8. The system of claim 5, wherein the network circuit is an ATM circuit.9. A method for maintaining a network circuit in a data network,comprising: obtaining logical circuit data for the network circuit froma network management module, wherein the network circuit comprises aphysical circuit and logical circuit; based on the logical circuit data,determining whether data is being transmitted over the network circuit;if the network circuit is transmitting data, troubleshooting the logicalcircuit; and if the network circuit is not transmitting data,troubleshooting the physical circuit.
 10. The method of claim 9, whereinthe physical circuit comprises a physical path for the network circuitin the data network.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the logicalcircuit comprises data describing a logical data path for the networkcircuit in the data network
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein obtaininglogical circuit data for the network circuit from a network managementmodule comprises: sending a request to the network management module toobtain the logical circuit data; at the network management module,requesting the logical circuit data from a legacy logical elementmodule; receiving the request at the legacy logical element module;based on the request, retrieving the logical circuit data from at leastone network device having access to the network circuit; at the legacylogical element module, sending the logical circuit data to the networkmanagement module; and receiving the logical circuit data from thenetwork management module.
 13. A system for maintaining a networkcircuit in a data network, comprising: at least one network devicehaving access to logical circuit data for the network circuit, whereinthe network circuit comprises a logical circuit and a physical circuit;a legacy logical element module, in communication with the at least onenetwork device, for retrieving the logical circuit data; a networkmanagement module for receiving the logical circuit data from the legacylogical element module; and a legacy physical element module operativeto, send a request to the network management module for the logicalcircuit data; receive the logical circuit data from the networkmanagement module; troubleshoot the logical circuit based on the logicalcircuit data, and troubleshoot the physical circuit based on the logicalcircuit data.
 14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a testmodule, in communication with the legacy physical element module, foraccessing a test point in the at least one network device totroubleshoot the physical circuit.
 15. The system of claim 13, whereinthe network device is a switch.
 16. The system of claim 13, wherein thecircuit is a frame relay circuit.
 17. The system of claim 13, whereinthe circuit is an ATM circuit.